#naisa

Juvies

The very last of the big SECAC commission: two juvies were all that remained on the to do list. On top a juvenile short-finned pilot whale. In essence they are not so different from their adult selves; they usually show some more pronounced markings on the head and have those kiddy proportions. Only an adult male would really stand out against them, with his square head and big dorsal fin.

Below a juvenile Cuvier's or Goose-beaked whale. These are quite fascinating in terms of colour change, if you recall my poster featuring the species. As calves and young juveniles, they bear quite different colouration from the light-backed adults, instead sporting a more basal countershading pattern. Quite a few species of beaked whale show a similar pattern in their juveniles and/or females. Between this and the young adult stage is just one more missing colour stage where the light belly darkens, and for a while the animal is completely plain brownish grey.

One thing I thought was really cool was the handling of Segyar and Naisa’s illiteracy; most fanfic erroneously assumes they can read, even though the show has repeatedly (if subtly) shown that they can’t. It’s not at all that they’re stupid or incompetent, as the rest of the fic shows. It’s that for most of history, most people were never given the opportunity to learn to read, and that farm purples were one of the last groups to be affected by mass literacy. Emina can read, of course, but Emina is not exactly an average purple.

A plethora of pilot whales

The alliterations continue, as well as the uploading of illustrations from last year’s two big project. This time, pilot whales. A big and impressive relative of the killer whale, which come in two species: the Long-finned (Globicephala melas) and Short-finned (Globicephala macrorhynchus). Ironically pectoral fin length isn’t always a good identifier, but shape is a good call: in Short-fins the pectoral fins have a continuous sickle shape, whereas in Long-fins the pectoral fins have a single bend, and then taper out very straight.

Within the species there is diversity too. Long-finned pilot whales are the colder water species of the two, and thus their range is divided into a northern and southern population. Northern animals are quite plain black aside from the white anchor marking on their chest and belly. However Southern animals bear very striking white eye- and saddle patches, a bit reminiscent of killer whales.

Short-finned pilot whales live in warmer waters and Japanese fishermen had long known of two different types. Recent research showed these to be two distinct global subspecies: the “Shiho” form, living mostly in the Eastern Pacific but also off Northern Japan, and the “Naisa” form, living in the rest of the Pacific Ocean, as well as the Indian and Atlantic. They can be told apart by their saddle patch: the Naisa form has a long saddle patch reaching almost the end of the peduncle, whereas the Shiho form has a very short one. I only illustrated Naisa animals, but all pilot whales currently living at Seaworld are of the Shiho form and you can see the difference in saddle patch length.

Happy Friday, Everyone! I just received some welcome good news: I will be presenting at the annual conference of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association this June in Oklahoma City. The theme this year is "Roots and Origins." My topic, taken from my thesis, is "Creation Story Motifs as Expressions of Identity and Resiliency in the Visual Culture of Kahnawà:ke," highlighting fashions by Tammy Beauvais and beadwork by Leith Mahkewa.